Letter: Where is the uniformity to help Pasco students excel?

I went over to talk with some picketers. They all said the Pasco School District had no curriculum. I was shocked! They all told me that they had to write their own curriculum to meet the state core standards except for math.

Being a retired elementary teacher in Kennewick, this would have never happened. Where is the uniformity within the district to help students excel? Maybe this is one reason why the district has so much cash in reserve?

Local media mentions some effects of testing and lack of respect but no mention of six years without a pay raise as causes of teaching shortages. Are college students so blind that they don’t see what’s going on? Experienced teachers like me are leaving the profession in droves.

In the Aug. 30 edition of the Herald, Rep. Mike Hewitt’s calls for “transparency” and that the potential strikes have nothing to do with funding are dead wrong. It has everything to do with funding.

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He infers that the bad union is to blame for the strike, when in fact the teachers are guiding this walkout because Olympia’s politicians —who swore to uphold the constitution — have stalled their feet over the McCleary decision and to restructure our tax system.